A Delta flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles was delayed for 18 hours forcing passengers to sleep on the airport floor with no food or water, according to travelers.

The plane was scheduled to leave JFK on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30pm. It did not end up departing the airport for the west coast until 9:20am Thursday morning.

During that time passengers say they were held on the tarmac for a total of eight hours and made to disembark twice in a delay the airline said was sparked by bad weather, mechanical issues and crew handovers.

Footage posted online shows chaos in the terminal as passengers react badly to the news that hotels would not be provided during the delay.

Pictures show others sleeping on the terminal floor or chairs with blankets from the disembarked jet. Others say they were given no water, no pillows and no covers.

Passengers, including Dancing with the Stars dancer Emma Slater, posted online about their 'hellish' experience.

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The plane was scheduled to leave JFK on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30pm. It did not end up departing the airport for the west coast until 9:20am Thursday morning

Footage posted online shows chaos in the terminal as passengers react badly to the news that hotels would not be provided during the delay

Eloise Moran told News 4: 'It's literally been hell.'

Another, who claimed passengers were only given food vouchers after everything had closed, said: 'Customer service was just about zero on a scale of 1 to 10.'

Celebrity dancer Emma share a tweet showing the scenes inside the airport. She wrote: 'Check this out. Disgraceful. @Deltatelling the hundreds of passengers of flight 975 (after waiting on the tarmac for a total of 8 hours and having to get off the aircraft twice for a multitude of reasons including mechanical) that they won't provide hotels for us.'

Others said called the journey a 'disaster' and said they were only given 'water and cheese-its' during the delay.

@StephRubel1 wrote: 'Flight 975 from jfk to lax is a disaster. Delays due to mechanical problems and flight crew issues.

'And now we're all sleeping on the floor at JFK. Sorry, but water and cheese-its are not enough. Never fling (sic) @Delta again.'

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Twitter user @thebirdsknow tweeted in the early hours of the morning to say: 'There's about to be a riot at this terminal. Passengers are extremely angry about being kept on the airplane on and off for 11 hours.

'People have asked for a supervisor and everyone is capturing this on video.'

A Delta spokesman told DailyMail.com: 'Delta apologizes to customers on flight 975 operating from New York-JFK to Los Angeles, which was delayed last night due to weather affecting Northeast airspace.

'Customers were offered water and snacks, pillows and blankets in the terminal before the flight departed at approximately 10am for Los Angeles Thursday morning.'

Pictures show others sleeping on the terminal floor or chairs with blankets from the disembarked jet. Others say they were given no water, no pillows and no covers

Passengers, including Dancing with the Stars dancer Emma Slater, posted online about their 'hellish' experience and posted footage from insdie the terminal

But FlightAware Vice President Matt Davis said: 'From what I'm seeing out of yesterday, there was nothing out of the ordinary at JFK.'

Earlier this month police called after a fight broke out between passengers on a 'nightmare' Delta Airlines flight after it was delayed on the tarmac in New York for eight hours.

Delta Airlines Flight 2385 to Miami was scheduled to take off from JFK airport on Thursday at 3.50pm but didn't end up leaving until 11.30pm.

Passengers said they were forced to remain on the plane the entire time and claim they were given no food and little water.

Police were eventually called on board when two agitated passengers started fighting.